structure of a sentence

[Peter En]

Hi,

 

I'm curious about the part in bold in the sentence:

Je ne l’ai pas vu, mais rien qu’à voir la bande annonce

 

Is it a general rule that, following que with a verb, a preposition of à is put? When, and why is à put? and what about when it is read...for example "qu'etre?" (excuse the lack of accent)

[Neil Coffey]

At first glance, this can look slightly confusing, but they're actually independent structures.

One use of "à" followed by a verb in French is to mean something similar to "by ...-ing", "upon ...-ing" in English. And specifically, "à voir..." mans something like "judging by ...", "judging by the look of...".

Then, "rien que" is a way of saying "just", "simply".

So the meaning is something like "just by looking at the banner trailer", "simply from how the banner trailer looks", "just judging by the banner trailer".

[George Hunt]

Doesn't "bande annonce" just mean  a (film) trailer?

[Neil Coffey]

Sorry, misread the post! Yes, it does!

[Peter En]

I just wanted to thank the both of you for the continued help. I cannot express how profoundly helpful both of you have been to me- I understand that I've asked quite a lot of questions this year and it's just been a big help, especially now that there are only a few months before my final french exams!

[Neil Coffey]

You're very welcome -- the more questions, the merrier! It's everybody's interesting questions that keeps this forum alive!

[George Hunt]

thanks for the questions!